Russia’s palladium imports avoid new U.S. trade duties

The International Trade Commission said imports of unwrought palladium from Russia did not materially injure, and did not threaten to materially injure, the U.S. industry. For importers and industrial users that rely on the metal, the practical result is simple: this case does not add new duties or other trade relief.

At the federal level, that matters because the injury finding is the last gate in an antidumping and countervailing duty case. Commerce had already found the metal was sold in the United States at less than fair value and was subsidized by the government of Russia, but those findings did not carry the case over the line.

The gate that stayed closed

The product at the center of the case is unwrought palladium, a metal used in industrial supply chains and provided for under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 7110.21.00. The petitioners were Stillwater Mining Company and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy and Industrial Services Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC.

Because the commission found no material injury or threat of injury, the case ends without the added costs that can follow a successful trade complaint. That leaves the supply line open for buyers who use palladium in manufacturing and other downstream work.

What the final finding means

This was the final phase of the trade case. The Commerce findings published in May had already established the dumping and subsidy findings, but the commission’s separate injury test controlled whether those findings would turn into new trade penalties.

Instead, the commission said the U.S. industry was not harmed enough for that step. In plain terms, the case stops here, and Russian unwrought palladium does not pick up new relief on top of the Commerce decisions.

The outcome keeps Russian unwrought palladium out of a new duty regime in this proceeding, which matters to importers and factories that depend on the metal.